Destiny's Calling
by LittleMissInsaneOfMind
Summary: Katniss tries her best to love Peeta all she can, but she realises she cannot escape destiny. That destiny is Gale. They were always meant to be. Peeta is destroyed, but can he move on? Will he find another half? CF has not happened. NOT one-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Destiny's Calling**

**Katniss tries her best to love Peeta all she can, but she realises she cannot escape destiny. That destiny is Gale. They were always meant to be. CF hasn't happened. Peeta is destroyed, but can he move on? Will he find another half? Ophelia and Prim are living in Victors Village, but Katniss prefers to stay back at their old home in The Seam. Gale has always loved her, and, as Katniss is realising now, she loves him too.**

**Disclaimer- all belongs to Susan Collins**

* * *

**Chapter 1 **

It was a cold, windy evening as I walked down the long, twisting path from Victors Village into the Seam. Hardly any people were around at this hour, and for good reason.

I was making my way back to our little old cottage in the Seam, that Mother, Prim and I lived in. HAD lived in, I reminded myself. That was before everything.

The Hunger Games. The Capitol. That dreadful Reaping.

I was the only one who went there now, Prim and Mother had settled in quite nicely in the new house in Victors Village. Mother now ran her apothecary shop and did all her medicine work there. It was a very grand home, one of the biggest in the district. Just one of the bathrooms of the new house is the size of our old living room. But I couldn't bring myself to spend much time there. It reminded me of it all.

The Reaping. The Games. The deaths. Peeta. Rue.

I had to hold back a sob as I thought that last one. Rue. Poor, innocent young Rue. Her loss still ate away at me while I lay awake at night.

I was nearing the Seam now, I saw, and I was surprised at how far I had travelled in such a short time. I must have been practically running with those thoughts. As I neared our home, I noticed a distant figure standing outside the door. Thinking he was just a local, and he was outside my door, I gave no thought to the figure. I kept walking at a steady pace. When the figure did not move, I began to wonder.

The figure then seemed to notice my approach, and stiffening suddenly and turning to face me. A sense of urgency seemed to grow within me, but I could not place what it was.

I finally reached the figure, and stopped short in my surprise.

"Katniss!" the figure said, sounding nearly panicked, something I had never heard from them. "I need your help! Quickly!"

My senses were strung tight as a wire, and my brain was running into overdrive.

It was Gale.

* * *

**This chapter was relatively short, but it is just a little bit to kick things off. I'm not going to beg and plead like most authors for you to review, if you want to you can, but you don't have to**

**.B**


	2. Chapter 2

**Destiny's Calling**

**Disclaimer – Susan Collins owns everything.**

**Chapter 2.**

* * *

_It was Gale._

Gale.

Gale?

Gale!

"Gale, what's wrong?" I asked, panic evident in my voice.

"It's Posy. She has been sick, and we just thought it was the flu but in the last hour she suddenly got much, much worse. We need your Mother! Or Prim! Just ANYBODY!"

Of course. It was just a sick child, needing my mother's healing skills. _No_, I thought, _not just a sick child. It's Posy. Gale's little sister. It may as well be Gale who is the sick one._

"Right, let's hurry and get her to Mother's house." And with that we both sprinted back to the Hawthorne's home. Gale didn't bother correcting me when I said it was Mother's home. He knew that I couldn't bear to spend all my time there. He knew that I mostly lived at the old house.

But not only did he know, he understood.

He understood WHY I needed to be away from that place.

Or from anything that reminded me of the Capitol, really.

Because the Capitol reminded me of the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games reminded me of Peeta. And Rue.

Gale understood ME. He understood me like nobody else did. More than Prim. More than Mother.

And more than Peeta.

Peeta.

I still didn't know where I stood with him. After we had returned from the Games, our friendship, our relationship, had deteriorated into a kind of cold uneasiness. Whenever we saw each other, or even when we were in the same room, we hardly acknowledged each other. We tended to avoid each other, just to avoid the awkward silences that would hang in the air.

I never had that problem with Gale.

He was my life-long friend. Always there. He always knew what to do. We never had serious fights. We were never awkward around one another.

I knew that before the games, everyone had expected Gale and I to get married. I always waved it off though, because I only ever saw him as a brother.

Lately, things had changed.

Since I came back, there had been some sort of tension between us. Nothing I had ever felt before. It was kind of like whenever we were close, I could feel this kind of low thrum of electricity between us.

Especially since that kiss.

The kiss.

I didn't know whether to say anything, because I didn't know if he felt it too. Sometimes I was almost certain he did, other times I had no clue.

Argh, this was all too confusing.

We were rapidly approaching the Hawthorne household, so I quickly left that morbid train of thought behind as Gale and I went in to retrieve Posy.

Gale carried her bridal style as we both ran up the long twisting path leading to Victors Village, the same path I had been walking down not ten minutes ago.

Posy looked terrible. I could see she was deathly pale under her olive skin, but her cheeks were flushed bright red. She was covered in a layer of cold sweat but was still shivering violently.

* * *

When Mother's house appeared in the distance, I ran ahead to warm mother of the patient. I opened the door with a loud slam, and shouted for mother or prim.

"MOTHER! PRIM! QUICKLY, WE HAVE A PATIENT"

Mother burst through the door as I said the last word, with Prim in quick pursuit.

"Who is it?" she asked, but before I could answer, Gale burst through the door with a deathly looking Posy.

"Oh dear" Mother said, as she frantically rushed her into her working room. The working room was where mother treated most of her patients; it held cupboards full of medicine and bandages to treat any ailment. When Posy was laid out on the table, she shooed Gale and I out and shut the door behind her, only prim and herself inside.

Gale slid down the door till he was sitting on the floor, his head rested on his knees, trying to catch his breath. I slid down beside him, knowing he was extremely worried for Posy.

Gale couldn't help but be fiercely protective of all his siblings, not just Posy, but his younger brothers, Rory and Vick too. And his mother. Gale would do anything to protect any of them. He refused to let any of his younger siblings take out Tesserae, instead choosing to take out more himself. Of course, this meant that he had had 40 entries into the Reaping Ball. That was many more than even most of the Seam kids. Now that he was 19, he wasn't eligible for the Reaping anymore. Instead, he spent his day working long hours in the deep mines; something that I'm not sure is better or worse. I don't know how he could handle it. I could hardly stand to be near the mines after both our father's had been killed in the mine explosion. Then again, it's not like he had a choice. District 12 was the mining district. Unless you came from a wealthy merchant family, like Peeta's, you had no choice but to work in the mines for your family to survive.

I once again felt that low thrum of electricity, but I ignored it, knowing that now was not the time to bring up such an issue, not with Posy laying just a few metres away. Quite possibly dying.

Gale still hadn't lifted his head

Just then, the door we were leaning against opened inwards, causing both Gale and I to lose our balance momentarily, but we quickly recovered.

I looked up to see Prim in the doorway looking down at us

"By the way Katniss, there is a visitor here for you; he's waiting in the lounge"

And with that she promptly shut the door again.

"A visitor?" I wondered out loud. Who would be visiting me? Let alone at this late hour. And anybody who knew me knew that I didn't usually spend my time here, so it can't be any close friends.

Apparently, hearing our brief conversation, the visitor decided to make himself known.

"Hello, Katniss...Gale."

We both looked up with surprise evident on our faces. Though I saw Gale's face quickly turn sour in annoyance. I didn't bother to think about what that could mean. Instead, I greeted the visitor, anxious to know why he was here.

"Hello, Peeta."

* * *

**Chapter 2 is now up; if you have any suggestions, please contact me.**

**.B**


	3. Chapter 3 The Fight

**Destiny's Calling**

**Disclaimer- Susan Collins owns all!**

**Thank you to ****Melissaann2658, ****For your inspiration **

**Just a warning, swearing in this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter three**

"_Hello, Peeta"_

Peeta looked incredibly awkward standing there, like he didn't quite know what to do. He was obviously surprised that Gale was here, but he didn't necessarily look happy about it

I couldn't help but wonder why the HELL he was here. It wasn't that I didn't want him to be here, but I didn't WANT him to be here either.

And I had a feeling that Gale's presence was about to make things interesting.

Before I had a chance to ask Peeta about his visit, Gale suddenly stood up, fast as lightning.

"What do you want?" Gale spat venomously at Peeta. I was momentarily taken aback. I knew they weren't the best of friends, but I had no idea their animosity had reached such a level.

I expected Peeta to be just as astounded as I was, but he didn't look in the least little bit surprised. In fact, he came back with a venomous retort of his own.

"What does it matter to you?"

"She's my best friend and you're in her house"

"So are you!"

"My sister needed medical attention!"

"So? Why couldn't you just wait outside?"

At this point I was pretty sure I was sitting there staring at them incredulously with my jaw scraping along the ground. Peeta and Gale were getting louder and louder, slowly moving closer to each other, both of them looking completely deadly.

"Even if she wasn't I would still be allowed in here, you stupid _Baker's son!"_

"Says who, you self-righteous bastard!"

Uh oh. Things were starting to escalate here. They were already calling each other names. As much as I wanted to break it apart, I couldn't, because honestly, I had no idea what they were fighting about.

And I still didn't know what Peeta wanted.

"Says me, you rich little fuck"

"And who said you had any right to decide who's allowed in this home, you stupid BRAT!"

"I'm older than you, you little shit, don't you DARE call me 'little' OR a 'brat'"

I had absolutely no idea what was going on in this argument. It started off as "WHY ARE YOU HERE" and it's ended up being "IM THE OLDEST". And what's more, I didn't know what they were going to gain from this, maybe except more enemies. I decided maaaaaybe I should do something here.

"Hey, guys, let's just calm down, okay?" I said calmly, hoping they would listen to me. I slowly stood up off the floor and went to stand between Peeta and Gale, both of which were sending each other death glares. Just as I was going to stand between them, Gale put his hand in front of me and quickly pushed me behind him.

"Stay out of this Katniss, I don't want you to get hurt" Gale said. They still hadn't broken eye contact.

"Why, were you planning on hurting her Gale? Because I certainly wasn't" Peeta spat.

"Fuck Off, Mellark, you know I wouldn't as much as I do" Gale retorted.

Yep. They were still glaring at each other.

"Okay, Peeta, Gale, Posy is right through there getting healed. Mother works best with peace and quiet, so maybe we should just calm down and let it drop, okay?"

Actually, that's a good point. I wonder why Mother or Prim hadn't come out to politely order us to SHUT UP yet.

"No matter. Let's take this outside, _Hawthorne_" Peeta said Gale's last name like it had killed his puppy and he wanted revenge.

"Only if you think you could take it, Mellark" Gale replied snidely

Nooooot good. Oh god. Please tell me they weren't planning on fighting. Please please please please PLEASE! I know Peeta survived the Games and all, but I knew that Gale could take him easily. And Peeta would be very, very hurt.

Before I could protest, the two of them had walked out onto the street and were once again arguing about God-knows-what, their voices escalating in volume until they were practically screaming.

I hurried out onto the front porch onto to see the two boys – they were acting too childishly to be called men right now – facing each other, once again glaring frostily at one another, both red in the face and panting. Both had their hands clenched into fists at their sides.

I couldn't let this happen. No matter what had been going on recently, or how I felt, about Peeta OR Gale, I couldn't stand to see either one of them hurt. And I knew that if I didn't intervene now, boy, one of them would be hurt. Maybe even both.

Just as I saw their mouths opening to unleash another round of arguing, I shouted at them. Louder than I have ever shouted before. It was good luck that we were in Victors Village, not back in the Seam. I'd hate to think of the scene that would be caused if this had happened there. The only people who could hear us here were Mother, Prim and Haymitch. Mother and Prim were too busy caring for Posy, and Haymitch was probably passed out drunk somewhere. And so then there were three.

"STOP! RIGHT NOW! LISTEN TO ME, I DONT CARE THAT YOU THINK I MIGHT GET HURT AND I DONT CARE WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE ARGUING ABOUT! BUT THIS STOPS RIGHT! NOW! I WILL NOT LET YOU HURT EACH OTHER LIKE THIS!"

Neither of the boys seemed to be very affected by my screaming though. Gale probably knew I was going to explode like this anyway. Peeta seemed a little more shocked, it showed on his usually emotionless face, but his eyes were still locked onto Gale's. I suppose all this arguing was affecting his composure.

I was still waiting for both of them to back away from each other and let it go. Just when I thought they were about to, they both opened their mouths and started arguing again, screaming over the top of each other, apparently not taking notice of what I said.

Great. Just great. I finally find my inner voice and try to do something good for once, and I'm totally ignored. The boys just acted like I wasn't there. That I didn't exist. For a moment that pissed me off and I considered leaving them to do whatever to each other. But I knew I couldn't do that. Even if I couldn't stop them screaming at each other, I had to be there to attempt to clean up the aftermath.

_Yay, _I thought drily.

I had zoned out from the boy's argument, but now it looks as though that was probably a very bad idea. They were both up close to each other, their chests practically touching, screaming at each other. This was bad. This was very bad. I could see that this was very close to getting physical, so I hurried over to break them apart as soon as possible.

I was too late.

I stopped in my tracks and stood there shocked, taking in the scene in front of me.

Just as Gale's fist sailed into Peeta's face.

* * *

**Sorry for taking so long to update everyone. Thank you to those who reviewed. I hope I took all of your suggestions into account and you are all satisfied **

**.B.**


	4. Chapter 4 The Aftermath

**Destiny's Calling.**

**Hello all and many thanks once again to my faithful reviewers who motivated me to keep writing because I had slightly forgotten about it :S **

**I am so very sorry that it has taken me this long to update. One of my best friends recently died, so I put the story on the backseat for a while. Thank you if you are still reading it **

**Disclaimer- Susan Collins owns all.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

_Just as Gale's fist sailed into Peeta's face._

Peeta lurched backwards, holding his nose, but I could still see the rivers of blood making their way between his fingers. He looked shocked, and really, _really_, angry.

Gale was still standing there with his fists clenched at his sides, looking deadly furious.

"GALE! WHAT THE HE-"

I was cut off by Peeta removing his hands from his nose, standing straight, stalking over and then throwing his own punch straight at Gale's face.

Ooooh my gosh. This was about to turn into a full on brawl, if it wasn't already, and I knew that a brawl was a really, really, bad idea.

Because I knew Gale would win.

Peeta was muscled, that was true, and he could throw his weight around if he really tried. But Gale was totally out of his league. Gale was tall and well built, though not stockily so, with muscles lining his entire body. Gale was lean, but he was incredibly strong, and he had the added bonus of having experience with grappling with wild beasts in the woods, and not to mention more than a few fights with some of the local boys. Peeta didn't have any of that. Yes, he had been in the Hunger Games, but he didn't REALLY do any hand-to-hand fighting.

Gale could sweep the floor with him if he wanted too.

Luckily, Gale had seen the fist flying towards his face, and quick as a flash he held Peeta's fist in the air.

I could see that Gale was infuriated by Peeta's actions and I knew I had to step in NOW.

I ran as quickly as I could covering the last few feet between us and placed my hands on both their sweat-slick chests.

"STOP! JUST STOP! I DON'T WANT YOU TO FIGHT!"

Once again an awkward silence fell around us.

Just then Prim opened the door and walked out on to the veranda looking for us. She gave us a quizzical look when she saw how we were positioned, but didn't comment on it. Smart girl.

"Um...I just came out with some news about Posy..."

Oh god. I knew Prim well enough to know that by the look on her face, this wasn't good.

And by the look on Gale's, he did too.

The fight instantly forgotten, Gale practically ran up to the veranda and gripped Prim by the shoulders.

"Prim, what's wrong! Is she okay?"

"Gale, I think you should come inside and sit down" Prim said nervously. She hated being the bringer of bad news.

Those words obviously didn't make Gale feel one little bit better, but at least he released his death grip on Prim's frail little shoulder as he made his way inside.

Of course, I followed obediently behind.

Quite surprisingly, Peeta then followed ME inside. I decided not to think about that.

We made our way inside and Gale sat down on our couch, me by his side, and Peeta standing by the doorway. Looking totally beaten up, which I suppose he was.

Prim sat down opposite us slowly and said, quietly and gently.

"I'm so, so sorry, Gale, but she probably isn't going to make it. Mother is trying her best right now to save her. I have to go and help her now, but I'm so very sorry" and with that the stood and made her way quickly and quietly out of the room.

Everything was deathly silent. I couldn't believe Posy was dying. Gale must feel...absolutely terrible. The only thing he ever wanted was to protect his family, and I bet all my money that right now he was blaming himself. I wish that Prim had told us exactly what was wrong with her, but I had a feeling that would just have made matters worse.

Gale's body shuddered as he tried to keep his emotions at bay. I could see how much he was fighting to maintain his cold mask, even though it was probably unhealthy to do so. I wrapped my arms around him and cradled his head against my chest.

"It's okay Gale, it will all be okay, Posy is a fighter, you know she is, she'll make it through" I soothed as I rubbed his back slowly.

Apparently that was the last straw for Gale, because suddenly his shoulders started quaking as sob after sob wracked his body. It hurt so much to see gale in this much pain. I can only imagine what he's going through. Just the thought of Prim getting that sick would have brought tears to my eyes, were they not already watery thanks to the news about Posy.

I continued to try to console Gale as best I could, rubbing his back and whispering positive words to him. Then I remembered Peeta had been present for this, and I looked up quickly to find that he was, in fact, still standing there passively, though staring at Gale with a shocked look on his face. I guess he thought, just like everyone else, that Gale was impenetrable. Unhurtable. Cold as stone. There were probably only about three people who had ever seen Gale cry, me being one of them.

Well, four now I guess.

Having Peeta here was a really bad thing, because not only was it now apparent that him and Gale HATED each other, I knew Gale would often try to rid himself of his sadness by turning it into anger and lashing out at people.

So, Peeta probably shouldn't be here.

"Peeta, I think you should leave" I tried to say it as quietly and politely as I could, without disturbing Gale. Peeta knew he was intruding but he still looked a bit offended that I had asked him to leave so I could console Gale, but now was not the time to be hung up about his feelings.

After he had left, I softly pushed Gale until he was sitting, then stood up and pulled him up with me.

He looked dead, and his eyes were puffy and red from his crying. I could see that he hated looking and feeling this vulnerable.

"Come on Gale, let's get you upstairs"

And with that I started to slowly lead him up to my bedroom, never letting go of his hand.

* * *

**Once again thank you to all my reviewers and sorry for taking so long to update. **

**.B**


	5. Chapter 5 Confusion

**Hi everyone, I am so, sorry it took my so long to update. Thankyou to my new Beta GallagherGirl202 for reminding me to update :P **

**PS. Just to avoid confusion, I did change my name; to LittleMissInsaneOfMind, just incase you're wondering**

**Hope you enjoy the new chapter!**

_**Previously**_

He looked dead, and his eyes were puffy and red from his crying. I could see that he hated looking and feeling this vulnerable.

"Come on Gale, let's get you upstairs"

And with that I started to slowly lead him up to my bedroom, never letting go of his hand.

**Chapter 5**

As we walked, I could see Gale trying desperately to get his emotions in check. He hated himself for showing weakness, I could see that much from looking at his face.

I pushed my bedroom door open, and was momentarily struck by indecision. Bed, chair, floor. Bed, chair, floor. The chair's really quite uncomfortable. The floor isn't exactly spotless. Looks like the bed it is.

I led him over to sit on the messy and crumpled sheets, quickly throwing my sleeping gown under the pillow. He just sat there, staring at the floor, looking positively glum.

I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, hoping to provide even a little bit of comfort.

"Come on Gale, I'm sure she'll be okay"

At that Gale jumped of the bed, so fast i nearly keeled over and faceplanted on the bed.

"NO!" he shouted angrily, his hands balled into fists, "Don't say that when you and I both know she IS NOT okay!"

"...She's not okay..."

It was barely a whisper.

He collapsed onto the bed beside me, and wrapped his huge arms around me, sobbing into my chest.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Katniss, I just...I can't stand to know that Posy is down there, dying, and there's nothing I can do about it!"

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and cooed to him.

"Ssh, Gale. I'm sure she'll be just fine. You know that my mother and Prim are both down there working as hard as they possibly can to save her. They love her nearly as much as you do, she's a family to us as well. They will do everything possible to save her, Gale. Don't worry."

His sobs continued on for a little while longer, but they slowly quietened. I wasn't sure how long we had been sitting here like this, but it must have been a while, at least an hour. He finally slowly sat up and loosened his grip on me, although not totally letting go.

His eyes were still puffy and bloodshot from crying, but tears were no longer flowing out of them. He looked me in the eyes, looking slightly sheepish, but still upset.

"Katniss, I'm sorry about that. And I-"

I cut him off from what he was about to say.

"Gale, don't worry, it's fine-"

"-I'm sorry about before. With Peeta. I shouldn't have..."

"Well THAT, that WASN'T fine!" I said, rather sternly.

"I know but...I couldn't help it! Him coming into your house like that, uninvited, that saying all those things to me AND to you, even though I'm older than him AND I've known you for a lot longer!'

I sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Gale, you can't beat up every guy who come into my house!"

"But-"

"OR any guy who says a few bad words about you. I know that your emotions were just running high because of the whole Posy thing, and I forgive you for that, but you probably shouldn't have punched Peeta like that"

"I know, and I'm sorry. Kind of..."

"GALE!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Really sorry."

"Better. I forgive you."

We then lapsed into awkward silence. Very, very awkward silence. The type of silence where somebody invariably yells out "A Gay baby was born!"

Unfortunately, we had nobody here to yell it out for us.

So it was still awkward.

I wasn't used to this, being awkward around Gale. Usually being around him is as easy as breathing.

But not today.

Then again, I don't usually have him sitting on my bed, in my bedroom, alone, after he has just has a small breakdown right in front of me.

He was looking down at the bed, fiddling with the bed sheets. I was sitting facing him cross-legged, just looking at his face.

I had to admit, he WAS pretty handsome.

Wait, what?

I had never, ever, thought of Gale in a romantic sense. I had always seen him as a brother. I should definitely, never ever think about that again. Yes. I will erase that entire mental conversation from my brain. Poof. Gone.

Now I'm thinking about it again. Ugh!

Just then Gale apparently found something under the sheets, and held it up.

I wouldn't usually mind, if he wasn't holding up my old bra.

Now it was REALLY awkward. I could practically SEE the heat radiating off my cheeks.

Great, the one day I have Gale sitting on my bed, I leave my gross old granny-bra lying around in it. Yay. It wasn't even a nice bra!

Dear ground, if you could, would you please swallow me up right about now? Thanks a lot. Love, Katniss.

He was just staring at it like he had never seen a bra before in his entire life. Actually, that was a question, had he? I mean, he only had two brothers and a toddler sister, so why would he have?

I really don't need to be having that conversation in my head right now, so I pushed it to the back of my mind.

He lifted his eyes from the hated piece of lingerie to meet my own eyes, and I expected to see embarrassment mirroring my own.

I was (perhaps unpleasantly) surprised.

He had a look in his eyes that I have never seen before on Gale. I briefly wondered what it was, but before i could do a great deal of pondering, he had thrown the bra somewhere in the near vicinity, leaped over and fervently attached his lips to mine.

Oh. My. God.

Gale was kissing me. Was this a good thing, or a bad thing!

I had absolutely no idea.

While my brain was discussing this, my body had a mind of it's own. My fingers wound their way into his hair, and I found myself kissing him back just as fervently.

I was too busy trying to think about whether this was actually a good idea to hear the door opening.

But I definitely heard the sharp intake of breath.

Gale apparently did too, because he stopped kissing me, but he didn't move off me.

I peered above his head to see my mother standing in the doorway looking mortified, a little bit disproving.

She decided to say what she was going to say and leave as quickly as possible. I can't wait for the lecture I'm going to get after this. Yay.

"..um, ugh, a, G-Gale, your, ah, sister is stabilised, but we, ah, want her to stay here for the night. Um, I think your mother and brothers need to know the news, so, ah, maybe you should, um..."

Right. Point taken. Time for Gale to leave.

Gale reluctantly pulled away and walked out, not meeting my mothers eyes as he passed.

When he had gone, my mother turned on me.

"now, young lady, explain to me what was going on in here!"

**YAY! Chapter 5 finished!**

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**-LittleMissInsaneOfMind**


End file.
